Huey, British pal barge into Australian Open quarterfinals

TREAT Huey (right) returns while Dominic Inglot looks on during their doubles match. AFP

Filipino Davis Cupper Treat Huey and British partner Dominic Inglot stunned seventh seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), on Sunday and reached their second successive Grand Slam quarterfinal round.

Boring deep into the Australian Open men’s doubles draw, the United States-born Huey, 28, and Inglot didn’t allow Bopanna and Qureshi to settle into their vaunted solid net game in the match that lasted one hour and 19 minutes at Melbourne Park’s Show Court 2.

The 12th-seeded Huey and Inglot took command by breaking their opponents’ serve in the seventh game of the opening set to go up, 4-3.

After the games went to serve in the second set, Huey and Inglot raced to 4-1 in the tiebreak and never looked back.

Their final-eight stint—which duplicated their 2013 US Open run—sent the local tennis scene abuzz as Huey again put himself on the verge of becoming the first Filipino to qualify in the semifinals of a Grand Slam event.

“Fantastic game in beating the seeded, tough and popular ‘Indo-Pak Express’ of Bopanna and Qureshi,” said Philippine Tennis Association vice president Randy Villanueva.

“The way Treat is playing I’m excited to see him enter the top 10 soon and be our first tennis Olympian.”

The top 10 players automatically gain Olympic entry. With Inglot serving 210 kph missiles in the blustery conditions, the duo scattered 10 aces against Bopanna and Qureshi who could only muster four.

Together they averaged 210 kph on first serves and 182 kph on second serves.

And much as they lived on their service game, Huey and Inglot—who went to University of Virginia together—also returned better, making nine return winners against their foes’ six.

Huey and Inglot will next face either the top-seeded American twins Mike and Bob Bryan, who have won all Grand Slam events, or American Eric Butorac and South African Raven Klaasen.

In 1981, Virgilio “Beeyong” Sison and his Swiss partner Markus Gundhart made the French Open quarterfinals, but Huey matched that last year at Flushing Meadows before he and Inglot lost to Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo.